Category Archives : Climate Change

Four Great Advantages and Benefits of Double Glazed Windows

It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do, the benefits of Double Glazed Windows are going to make your house a nicer space to be in.

Here are the top 4 reasons why you need double glazed windows in your house.

1. A Double Glazed Thermal Dream

With heating and fuel costs going through the roof these days, getting double glazed windows really is a no-brainer! They’re thermally efficient and keep as much of your heat inside where it belongs. Your old windows may have been leaching out your heat (and your money!).

Not only do these wonderful inventions save you money in the winter, but they also help you save tonnes of money in the hot summer months. Your cooling costs can also be dramatically reduced by the implementation of double glazed windows. The glass acts as a barrier to the sweltering heat from outside that’s attempting to penetrate your icy fortress.

In a nutshell, it will keep you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer!

2. Double Glazed Windows; are (Noise) Killing Machines

One of the best features about double glazed windows (especially when acoustic glass is used) is that they’re practically sound proof. Do you live by a busy highway? Enjoy your AFL matches in surround-sound bliss with your double glazed windows.

Perhaps you live in a school district. Are noisy kids cantering past your house every day giving you the blues? Block out their high-pitched chatter with a brand new set of double glazed windows!

Do you live near a construction site? An airport? Or maybe you just have annoying neighbours. The fact is, with double glazed windows you can seriously reduce the noise pollution affecting your home. Hooray for silence!

3. Less Water Damage

Have you ever poured cold water into a glass and then watch the glass get super misty? Of course you have. That’s called condensation. Welcome to 5th grade geography class! Condensation happens when warm air is cooled. Our old single-paned friends have serious issues with condensation. You see, when it comes to windows, condensation is bad.

Think of your home as a giant glass of water. When your air conditioned windows come in contact with the heat from outside, it will form water droplets on your windows. The same thing happens when inside is warm and outside is really cold. Now the water droplets are harmless on their own, the real damage comes when they trickle down to your window frames or seep into your walls.

Over time, this could cause extensive water damage and cost you quite a bit of money in the long run. Double glazed windows aren’t immune to condensation, but if they’re installed properly and made with the right material, the chances of this happening are very slim. The inner pane of the window acts as a barrier between the sharp differences in temperature.

4. Double Glazed Windows are Greener Living

If you’re environmentally conscious (you should be!), then you will definitely appreciate this benefit of double glazed windows. More and more glass manufacturers are opting to use recycled glass for its environmental benefits. Apart from that, double glazed windows are very energy efficient and help to reduce your fuel consumption by controlling heating and cooling losses through proper insulation.

Double glazed windows are pretty amazing. They will save you lots of cash in the long run, they’ll protect you from annoying neighbours and they will reduce your environmental impact. They are an all-around good investment for any home-owner, whether you’re planning to sell or you’re in it for the long-haul.

Why Double Glazing? 2016 Was The Hottest Year On Record!

Using double glazing to help cool your home is becoming more valuable by the year.

2016 is now officially the world’s hottest year on record. Just ask NASA and NOAA. It beat the previous record, which was set in 2015. Which beat the previous record, set in 2014. See a pattern here?

It’s a sobering thought, but anyone under the age of forty has never lived in a year that was not above the average temperature experienced over the whole of the 20th. Century.

As our summer temperatures get progressively hotter, it has a direct effect on our homes.

Hotter temperatures make us more uncomfortable.

Hotter temperatures mean that we use our air conditioning more, driving up our electricity bills- at a time when our tariffs are at a record high level, too.

The extra hours that your aircon runs, and extra on/off cycling, cuts down the life of your system, and increases the need for maintenance/servicing.

Fitting double glazed windows and doors to your home helps cut down the amount of heat entering in summer. If you also specify uPVC frames, you’ll get the very best combination of high thermal insulation, high acoustic insulation, and a long, maintenance-free lifetime.

Study: Heatwaves Will Get Longer, Hotter & More Frequent

The evidence is in… again. The University of NSW has used a database that tracks the last 50 or so years of heatwaves , to discover any trends.

Their analysis shows that heatwaves are getting longer, more frequent and more intense in Australia. One of the climate scientists involved in the study, Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick explains how and why in the video below. She also reflects on the value of using double glazing to reduce heat inside the home, and reduce air conditioner use. In an ABC 7:30 Report aired on 20/11/2015, one of the climate scientists involved in the study, Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick explains how and why. The Interviewer is Julia Baird.

“JULIA BAIRD: And given that emissions are going to increase, obviously there is a debate about to what extent, are we at the point where we need a cultural change, a change in our thinking, where we all start to say okay instead of toughing it out this summer, instead of perhaps buying more air conditioners, we actually try to adapt to it and accept that our lives will be different now?

SARAH PERKINS-KIRKPATRICK: Absolutely I think we needed that about 10 years ago. People sometimes think that double glazing on their windows on their houses for example isn’t a good move because you only need that in cold climates to keep the heat in but insulation goes both ways, if you want to keep the heat in, you also want to keep the cool in and vice versa. So perhaps using those sorts of measures when we are building our houses, maybe making it easier, or cheaper for people to buy those sorts of resources.

That also goes for insulation in the walls of the house, in your roof, making these resources more available. So that goes into our architecture or how we live our daily lives. There are also other ways like maybe the times of days that we move, like it is peak hour out there now, I’m sure a lot of people don’t want to be out there in this hot weather. Perhaps if we moved at different times or could potentially work at home to stop people being out in this extreme weather and getting heat stroke as well. But I would say we needed those changes and that cultural shift to start quite a while ago.”

I couldn’t agree more. We shouldn’t need to point out that double glazing is insulation. and it works both ways. It’s nice to have a scientist remind us that double glazing helps keep us cooler in summer, as well as warmer in winter.